Education

Some general proposals:

• Teach cooking in school and experiment with student-run kitchens. It teaches life skills as well as math, reading, and problem solving.  It can also teach grace and manners.

  • I spend half of what my food stamp (SNAP) benefits would be if I were on assistance. But that is because I cook with ingredients and do not buy processed or prepared food. It costs me less than a dollar to make a loaf of bread. Most SNAP recipients are paying $4 or $5 dollars at the store. To bring down grocery bills, we have to teach students to cook.  We aren't paying for food - over 90% of what we pay is for the processing of food.

• Teach Driver’s training in high school, with waivers for family farmers. Driver's training has become a lucrative business and is becoming unaffordable for families. Let's eliminate the industry-driven regulation around this and take it back into the schools.

• Experiment with the one-room schoolhouse in limited circumstances.

• Focus on all 5 forms of education. I was in the last generation that received education around the clock. In 5 different ways.

  • Public Education: This was meant to teach the things that the parents could not teach.  It was never meant to absolve the parents from what I call Family Education.

  • Family Education:  My parents, having come from homesteading families that originally had to homeschool their children, still believed it was their job to educate their children as much as possible. Before I started Kindergarten, I could tell time, read, and do simple math. I also knew a lot of history and culture.  When Michigan closed down its one-room schoolhouses, and I went to public school, I was shocked at how far behind my classmates were. Today, many parents spend virtually no time on this. Nor are they passing down the moral lessons that I received.  We need to constantly remind parents that education is one of their primary responsibilities.

  • Education through Work:  Aristotle said:  The way you learn to do the things you need to learn to do, you learn by doing them.  Growing up on a farm, I learned at least a dozen trades by the time I was 15.  I was competent and capable and knew I could get a job at any business in town.  In a family-owned restaurant, even the 5-year-olds are folding napkins and doing small chores. It teaches a work ethic and instills pride.  We need to focus on this and bring it back. Theatre is a great example of how this might work.  It teaches timing, staging, and looking out for others. And instills pride.

  • Religious Education: This does not mean teaching students to be religious or adhere to a particular religion. But it is impossible to understand history or politics without understanding religion and its impact over time. My parents taught me Christian religion, as did Sunday school. But my one-room school teach also taught me about all of the other religions, without advocating for or against them. This should be done primarily through Family Education, but public schools have a role as well. This simply isn't being done today.

  • Peer Education:  Our youth learn massive amounts from their peers.  Yet we don't spend a lot of time focusing on peer groups, which can be nurtured or left to go feral.  This isn't a public school duty per se, it is a cultural goal, which we used to do.  

 

Study the Mississippi Miracle that moved that state from #49 to #8 in reading in 10 years.  Michigan spent an additional $1 billion on this issue, and we dropped in performance. Yet at the same time this happened:

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Michigan now has 1 person employed for every 3.5 students.  When I went to a one-room schoolhouse, we had 1 person employed for 15 students, which included those with learning differences and disabilities.  What can we learn from this?

 

Reduce the interest rate on student loans to 0%.  Forgiveness was never going to fly.  But an interest-free loan will. We are already beginning to do this at the state level.  Let's tell Congress to do the same.